forsyte



Patented Det. I8, |898. G. H. FORSYTH.

CURTAIN FIXTURE.

(Application led June 13, 1898,)

(No Model.)

3 Sheets-Sheet 2` No. 612,606. Patented Oct. I8, |898. G..H. FURSYTH.

CURTAIN FIXTURE.

(Application led June 13, 1898.) l (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

F' .Z A Zw? l Y y I @'36 M556 Nrrnn STATES l GEORGE H. FORSYTH, OF CIIICAGO,`ILLINOIS, ASSGNOR TO THE FORSYTH BROTHERS COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 612,606, dated October 18, 1898.

Application filed June 13,1898. Serial No. 683,291. (No model.)

To @ZZ wiz/m t may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE Il. FORSYTH, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in CurtainFiXtures, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improvement in that class of curtain-fixtures which are intended to hold the lower edge of a shade or Io curtain against lateral movement and sustain it at any desired elevation against the pull of the spring of the shade-roller upon which the curtain is mounted. Various devices have been proposed for this purpose, but the only ones which have gone into extensive use are, first, those employing spring-actuated rods sliding in a tube or pocket in the lower edge of the shade or curtain and having friction tips or heads contacting with the bottoms of 2o the grooves in the sides of the window-frame with pendants or handles carried by the sliding rods, by means of which the friction-tips are withdrawn from contact with the bottoms of the grooves in adjusting the curtain, and,

z 5 second, those in which cords are secured to diagonally opposite corners of the windowframe, said cords passing through a tube or sheath in the lower end of the shade or curtain, the curtain being frictionally held against the 3o pull of the shade-roller by the contact of the cords with the ends of the tube or of the guides carried thereby.

The fixture first above mentioned is generally used in the better class of passenger- 3 5 cars-such as sleeping-cars, parlor-cars, and special cars and passenger-coaches-and on closed street-cars, while the latter class` of fixtures is most generally employed on open street-cars, being specially adapted to that 4o class of cars, because they require no skill in manipulation, cannot readily be gotten out of order by careless handling, and may be operated froin both sides with equal facility.

The cord-fixture,while well adapted in some respects for use upon open cars, has many objectionable features, the chief of which is lack of durability, and this lack is inherent in the structure as heretofore employed, because dependence is placed upon the friction of the 5o cords with the ends of the tube or with the guides carried thereby to sustain the curtain against the pull of the spring-roller, and in order to secure the requisite friction to maintain the curtain in position the cords must be stretched taut, which not only makes the A fixture hard to operate, but also results in the breaking of the cord or the strands thereof, and thus at once impairs and soon wholly destroys the efficiency of the fixture.

It is the object of my invention to provide a durable curtaindixture which cannot be displaced, which will at all times hold the shade or curtain at any desired elevation and with its lower margin in a horizontal plane, and which can be operated from either side easily and without binding. To these ends l employ as a means for holding the lower edge of the curtain substantially parallel and preventing the fixtures from coming out of the grooves iiexible guides, which may be 7o cords, chains, or tapes, preferably metal tapes, and these flexible guides maybe secured at diagonally opposite corners of the windowframe and pass through a tube or sheath in the lower edge of the shade or curtain, but preferably without any friction or with the least possible friction upon the ends of the tube or sheath or the guides carried thereby. As a means for holding the shade against the pull of the springuollerl employ spring-actuated friction-shoes, also preferably mounted in the tube, sheath, or pocket in the lower edge of the shade or curtain and normally held in contact with the bottoms of the grooves by means of outwardly-forcing springs. Preferably and in order to secure compactness the fieXible guides pass through suitable apertures in the friction-shoes, the latter being slidably mounted in the ends of the tube and their actuating-springs .arranged 9o within the tube and surrounding the tapes.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which-F Figure l is a front elevation of a .window-a frame having a curtain provided with my improved curtain-iixture mounted therein. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation through the curtain, its tube, and shade-roller, showing one side `of the frame in side elevation. Fig. 3 is a broken sectional elevation through the pocket or tube of the shade, showing the n tapes, friction-shoes, and springs. Fig. 4; is

IOO

Fig. 9i is an elevation tion head or shoe and showing one strand of the cord connected thereto and the other Y passing therethrough.

InA the drawings let 10 represent the curtain, having the usual pocket 11, in which may be mounted a tube or sheath 12, which i preferably has its inner wall offset or shouldered, as at 13, to form an abutment for the springs 14.

15 represents the movable heads, whose shanks 16 may enter the ends of the tubes and be seated against the springs 14E. The preferred form of the head is shown in Fig. 4E, in f which the shank 16 is cylindrical and tubular and the neck portion 17 is iattened,such neck portion being flared at its outer end to receive the two-part tip or shoe shown in Fig. 5. The parts of the shoe marked 1S 19 may be struck up or formed from sheet metal and are of such l shape that the part 19 can be slipped into the part 1S, its open side first, and when the two parts are thus united they may be secured together and to the flared mouth of the head by ,l means of rivets 20. When the parts are thus secured in position, openings or channels for I the free passage of the tape are provided, `as shown at 21, and while these apertures are of such size in cross-section as not to produce 1 any friction upon the tape, but, on the contrary, permit it to pass or run freely through them, yet they are preferably of such form f as to prevent the latter from turning therein, p forming, as they are intended to do, mere guide-passages.

posite corners of the window-frame and are passed through the guide-apertures of theV heads and are spirally twisted within the tube 12, so that they run atwise upon each other.

As a means for securing the ends of the tapes to the frame I preferably employ the two-part 1 holder shown in Fig. 6, in which 24 represents a shallow metal box with an open upper end and a slot 25 in its face and provided with screw-apertures 26.

27 represents a clamplength the clamping-block 27 is secured over the doubled end of the tape by one of the fastening-screws. By this simple means the tape can always be adjusted as to length and a sufficient amount of the end doubled over to hold it firmly in place, the remainder being cut off.

I have shown stationary cords passing 'through the tube carried by the shade and crossing therein, which serve as guides; but, obviously, instead of using stationary cords endless cords maybe used, and instead of passing through the tube the cords may be secured to the ends thereof or to the usual shade-stick. Such a construction is shown in Figs. 9, 9, and 9b, wherein the movable heads 15 are connected to two of the strands of the cord 33, said cord being doubled upon itself and passing over pulleys 34., journaled at the lower corners of the window-frame, and over the double pulleys 35 36 at the upper corners of the Window-frame. These pulleys constitute guides over which the strands of the cords are turned or deflected, and instead of the double pulleys 35 36 a single -pulley with two grooves may be used. The cord may be endless, with two of its strands secured in any convenient way to the heads 15, respectively; but for convenience of attachment I sever one strand on each side and attach the severed ends by passing them through perforations in the heads and using suitable clips 37 to secure such ends. The unattached strands pass through apertures of the heads, thus leaving the shoe free to contact with the bottom of the groove. In this construction the lower margin of the shade is kept in a horizontal plane by its attachment to the running-strands of the cord. Thus, as in the construction previously described, the 4cord serves to lmaintain the lower edge of the shade in parallelism or in a horizontal plane and the friction heads or shoes serve to restrain the curtain from being rolled up under the pull of its spring. 4

The mechanical structure is susceptible of considerable variation without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I have illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8 two modi` fied forms in which my invention may be embodied. As shown in Fig. 7, the back of the head 15 is cut away and the antifriction-roll ers 28 are journaled therein to prevent friction on the tape. In Fig. S instead of the round tube I have shown a square tube 29 and have mounted in the end thereof a metallic frame 30, carrying antifrictiomrollers 31 and a tubular socket or spring-barrel 32, in which the friction tip or head is mounted. In this construction the tapes issue between the rollers 31 and the ends of the frame 30, which prevents their twisting, while friction is avoided by the introduction of the rollers.

In the several constructions it will be observed that the arrangement and combinas tion of the parts is such that the holding of the shade or curtain against the pull of the spring of the shade-roller is accomplished by the spring-actuated friction-tips and that the tapes are used simply to guide the fixture and preserve its parallelism. For this purpose IOO IIO

these flexible guides should not be stretched so taut as to exert friction upon the surfaces between or over which they pass, it being sufiicient that the iiexible guides shall be only so taut as to prevent the end of the curtain from being lifted enough to carry the friction-tipout of the groove, and` it is in this sense that the tapes or flexible strands are referred to herein as constituting guides. These flexible strands or guides also prevent uneven or oblique positions of the lower margin of the curtain, which would otherwise result from an attempt to raise or lower the curtain by taking hold of its lower margin near one end.

The principle of the operation of my fixture maybe stated as follows: The Iiexible strands serve the purpose of preventing the margin of the curtain being placed in oblique or abnormal positions to such an extent as to permit the friction-tip to leave the groove, and the extent to which they subserve this p urpose is dependent upon the length of the flexible guide between :its points of attachment, or, in other words, if it be stretched sufficiently taut to prevent a variation of the ends of the curtain from the horizontal plane it may yet run without any friction or appreciable friction upon the ends of the tube or the parts over whichA it passes. The holding of the curtain at the desired points is due solely to the friction-tips, and when the fixture is properly applied the parts will be so adjusted that the spring of the shade-roller will roll up the curtain if the friction-tips be held out of action.

My invention obviates the objectionable features heretofore present in these curtainy fixtures, wherein reliance was had upon the friction of the cords or guides to hold the curtain against the' pull of the spring of the shade-roller. The friction necessary to this end invariably results in the early destruction of the iiexible cord or guide, while in my improved fixture this friction is reduced to a minimum and preferably entirely overcome, and the cords being relieved of strain and rubbing contact with the parts over which.

shade and adapted to contact with the winf dow-frame, whereby to hold the shade at any desired elevation independently of the flexible guides, substantially as described.

2. A curtain-fixture comprising in combination with a shade or curtain and its springactuated roller,ilexible guides connected with the lower edge of the shade or curtain,whereby to maintain it in substantial parallelism with the roller, and spring-actuated friction shoes or tips carried by the curtain and adapted to contact with the window-frame, whereby to hold the shade at any desired elevation against the pull of the shade-roller spring, substantially as described.

3. A curtain-fixture comprising in combi nation with a curtain and its spring-actuated roller and tube or pocket, of flexible guides extending through said tube or pocket and toward diagonally opposite corners of the window, and springfactuated friction-shoes also carried by the curtain and adapted to impinge the window-frame, substantially as described.

. 4. A curtain-fixture comprising in combin nation a spring-actuated curtain provided with a tube or pocket in its lower margin, flexible guides passing through said tube or pocket and extending from the ends thereof in opposite directions and friction-shoes slidably mounted within the ends of the tube, and springs adapted to thrust said shoes out wardly and into contact with the windowframe, said shoes having apertures through which the ilexible guides issue, substantially as described.

GEORGE H. FORSYTH.

Witnesses:

y L. F. MCCREA, E. L. HUBER. 

